OK, I am an admitted non-dessert fan. For me the perfect finish to a meal is either a wine (Port , Sauternes, late harvest something) or cheese, or preferably both.

Nonetheless, when I was reading a supposedly serious foodie mag recently, I saw a recipe with Cool Whip in it. Gag!

I eschew anything made of Spam, Rice Crispies, and any other 'convenience' food of indeterminate origin. Cool Whip must be added to that list.

For anyone who is really interested in food, eating Cool Whip and still considering yourself a 'Foodie' must be the equivalent of a Sterno drinker calling himself a wine connoisseur.

Do people who care what they put in their mouths really eat this 'processed oil food'? If so, they probably wolf down Twinkies sitting in their closets so no one will know, and eat Spam coated with Rice Crispies......Jello, tuna melt, cream cheese, Velveeta sauces....aaiiieeeeee!!!!!!

Oh I don't know, Bill. Just because one is serious about food doesn't mean that all trash foods are off the bill. It's like being a serious cinema fan but still keeping a place in your heart for Plan 9 from Outer Space. Although I would personally put Cool Whip off my list, I really enjoy the occasional Hostess Cup Cake....

Bill Spohn wrote:Do people who care what they put in their mouths really eat this 'processed oil food'? If so, they probably wolf down Twinkies sitting in their closets so no one will know, and eat Spam coated with Rice Crispies......Jello, tuna melt, cream cheese, Velveeta sauces....aaiiieeeeee!!!!!!

I've often wondered about what isn't processed food. Once we do anything to a product, it has been subjected to a process. Short of eating our meat directly off the hoof or gathering fruits, nuts and berries, most things we consume have undergone some kind of intervention. It's just a matter of degree.

Just because we've been eating bread since time immemorial doesn't mean that it isn't processed grain. And look at all the things we do to wine. How far back does nixtamalization go? Is there a difference between sucking down Valium and casusally sipping a couple of Valerian teas?

I mean I'm with you, but not because the things have been chemically treated or processed. Some of this cr*p just doesn't taste good and that's why I avoid certain things. And what astounds and saddens me is that there are whole generations who use these items as their benchmarks for tastes, flavors and consistencies. Where we might relish an aged Gouda, this experience might repulse a young one who has grown up on nondescript and flabby Kraft slices. "Omigod, you mean it hasn't been emulsified, mummified, and sliced into easy eatin' portions!? How ghetto is that?"

Gary Barlettano wrote:And what astounds and saddens me is that there are whole generations who use these items as their benchmarks for tastes, flavors and consistencies. Where we might relish an aged Gouda, this experience might repulse a young one who has grown up on nondescript and flabby Kraft slices. "Omigod, you mean it hasn't been emulsified, mummified, and sliced into easy eatin' portions!? How ghetto is that?"

Getting into additives and processing is to risk toppling into a morass of confusing debate on both sides of the issue.

I have no time for people that tout so-called 'natural' foods - eating natrural mushrooms will kill you just as dead as processed presumably unnatural ones.

I have no time for people that tout so-called 'organic' food - the 'inorganic' foods are presumably the ones without the insect holes in them?

'Organic' and 'natural' are just buzzwords for people who have no knowledge of the biochemistry of the subject. Not all organic foods are good for you and not all foods that are not organic are covered with chemicals that are harmful. Many processed foods are healthier for you than unprocessed - if the processing makes them have a longer shelf life without introducing any harmful agents, for instance.

Like you, I am more concerned about public perception of what is good and I am sadly sure that with food there will be far more people that think white bread and Twinkies are the acme of good taste just as the vast majority require of their wine only that it be slightly sweet, cheap and intoxicating.

Hmm - perhaps Twinkies and Cool Whip are to good food what (c)Rap music is to Beethoven....?

RichardAtkinson wrote:But I will agree on the Spam...as well as any other type of "potted meat food"..(i.e deviled ham etc..) I really don't want to know whats' in those products...especially the generics. Richard

Hehehehehe. What memories! While I was a grad student at a German university back in the '70's, I also taught classes at the local U.S. Army barracks and hence had a military I.D. card. This allowed me to enjoy the best of both worlds, i.e. the commissary and Class VI as well as the native offerings on the German economy. The kid in the next room, a German medical student, and I ate tons and tons of Red Devil Deviled Ham and Chicken, which we referred to as "chicken-wurst" and got from the commissary, along with 69¢ cans of Green Giant asparagus. This was usually accompanied by some stout German bread and wonderful wines from Rheinhessen. Delicacies I tell you for those of us living in 6'x6', unheated mansard rooms on less than a $100.00 a month.

I have a similar distaste for all the processed convenience foods out there, and with very rare exceptions, do not buy them. But then again when I was growing up we did not eat ready foods and very rarely ate out - in my family, cooking at home was the norm, and I made a decision to carry on that practice many years ago. Really, I don't view cooking as a chore at all - it's a pleasure, an art.

Today, I might stop into a chain restaurant like Tim Horton's only if I'm on the road and have no other choices. When I shop at the grocery store, I head straight for the fruit and vegetable section and religiously avoid the aisles that have the chips, pop, snacks, cookies and other such items. Sugary snacks and the like have no place on my plate ... or my palate.

When I shop at the grocery store, I head straight for the fruit and vegetable section and religiously avoid the aisles that have the chips, pop, snacks, cookies and other such items. Sugary snacks and the like have no place on my plate ... or my palate.

I had someone explain to me that pattern of shopping at the grocery store as 'shopping around the edges'.... meaning you stick to the counters and areas that surround the perimeter of the store - and avoid those back-and-forth aisles that make up the center.

Bill Spohn wrote:I eschew anything made of Spam, Rice Crispies, and any other 'convenience' food of indeterminate origin.

If I had a glove, I'd challenge you to a duel for insulting Spam.

I agree with you on most potted meats, but not Spam. I like Spam. If you read the ingredients it's only pork shoulder and ham, unlike other brands with questionable ingredients. I have a Spam t-shirt, a Spam hat, a Spam bank, Spam pencils, etc. I've even won two trophies in Spam contests.

Larry I love Cool Whip too. What the heck, everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's wrong! Seriously, foods you should NEVER eat? As long as they are edible I say go for it. Are we getting all judgmental over here? (Yes I'm feeling a little defensive.)

I don't mind judgemental; I'm one of those myself--as has been pointed out in this forum. But judgemental threads get big and tasty, and that's what this forum is about--letting people talk (I wonder if this is being recorded by Homeland Security). [It's all harmless fun as far as I'm concerned-- letting people spout off, unless it's politics like we had on an earlier forum. Now that got judgemental. But just so you know, some of my best friends (and even some relatives) are Republicans.]

Bill Spohn wrote:I eschew anything made of Spam, Rice Crispies, and any other 'convenience' food of indeterminate origin.

If I had a glove, I'd challenge you to a duel for insulting Spam.

I agree with you on most potted meats, but not Spam. I like Spam. If you read the ingredients it's only pork shoulder and ham, unlike other brands with questionable ingredients. I have a Spam t-shirt, a Spam hat, a Spam bank, Spam pencils, etc. I've even won two trophies in Spam contests.

Follow the bouncing ball: Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam....

BTW, what wine goes with Spam?

I actually judged a Spam cooking contest at the local county fair one year.
Was not familiar with Spam while growing up. I was introduced to it in Vietnam. I was in the 25th Infantry Division - this division was normally (i.e. when there was no war going on) stationed in Hawaii and the division was chock full of native Hawaiians. We used to have "Spam grills." Also, the first month I was in Vietnam I did the ordering for the PX. I had to order literally tons of Spam. Spam is ethnic Hawaiian food.

ChefCarey wrote:Was not familiar with Spam while growing up. I was introduced to it in Vietnam. I was in the 25th Infantry Division - this division was normally (i.e. when there was no war going on) stationed in Hawaii and the division was chock full of native Hawaiians. We used to have "Spam grills." Also, the first month I was in Vietnam I did the ordering for the PX. I had to order literally tons of Spam. Spam is ethnic Hawaiian food.

Oh Gawd - you bring back memories.

We had a place on the Big Island (it was a bit dodgy - pun intended - for a Canadian kid approaching draft age to spend much time there in the late 60s).

My Hawaiian friends used to concoct such memorable delicacies as sweet and sour Spam....

I had nightmares no doubt caused by eating such stuff with poi and rice....or or do you think it might have been the bottle of Okolehau (more likely dark Rum) I drank along with it?

ChefCarey wrote:Was not familiar with Spam while growing up. I was introduced to it in Vietnam. I was in the 25th Infantry Division - this division was normally (i.e. when there was no war going on) stationed in Hawaii and the division was chock full of native Hawaiians. We used to have "Spam grills." Also, the first month I was in Vietnam I did the ordering for the PX. I had to order literally tons of Spam. Spam is ethnic Hawaiian food.

Oh Gawd - you bring back memories.

We had a place on the Big Island (it was a bit dodgy - pun intended - for a Canadian kid approaching draft age to spend much time there in the late 60s).

My Hawaiian friends used to concoct such memorable delicacies as sweet and sour Spam....

I had nightmares no doubt caused by eating such stuff with poi and rice....or or do you think it might have been the bottle of Okolehau (more likely dark Rum) I drank along with it?

That Hawaiian moonshine is potent stuff! It'll make you blind you know, or at least cause you to get reading glasses, he says pushing his up on his nose.

ChefCarey wrote:This food item may be more divisive of our species than the liberal and conservative labels. I personally like them if well prepared, but stopped using them as a restaurant vegetable years ago.

I don't know - I think 'innards' would also be a divisive sort of food.

While I very much enjoy foie gras, and liver pates, I have had an antipathy for cooked liver since childhood and I include any of the other foods in that, which have the typical strong taste - kidneys, heart etc.

That's not to say that I haven't (tentatively and then with more vigour) eaten very good veal kidney on occasion, but I only enjoyed it as it had little of the strong flavour I am talking about.

Some 'innards' don't have that flavour - sweetbreads don't, nor do brains (I once asked Jenise if she had ever had brains and she answered in the negative - draw your own conclusions....)

A drizzle of olive oil. Salt and pepper. Wrapped up in a little foil packet on the grill so that some of the edges lightly brown? Mmm. I can literally make a meal of them.

Or halved and steamed, then refrigerated. I eat them like I would a carrot stick--just a sprinkle of salt; the texture and flavor are delish.

Thank you, Trudy. I, too, am a true lover of Brussel sprouts. They just seem so perfect. When my kids were little, we used to refer to them as brains. They do look a little like little green brains, don't they? Gruesome as it sounds, my kids learned to love them, too.

Some people are genetically sensitive to bitterness. I guess I'm one of them. I've tried eating brussel sprouts many times (and still will try them), but find them too incredibly bitter to eat. And I like gin and tonics. Go figure.